Justinian’s Reconquest:  background to Purg VI-VII

Last Roman Emperor in the West,
        Romulus Augustulus, deposed 476 AD

OSTROGOTHIC KINGDOM (493-535) in Italy
     = Eastern Goths, capital at Ravenna
     first of "barbarian" Germanic kingdoms in Italy
     end of “Roman” political organization in west
     Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths ( = Eastern Goths, Arians)
     authorized by Eastern Roman Emperor to march against Huns;
    accepted by Senate and People of Rome

Arian heresy as major weakness of Ostrogothic Kingdom:
      Byzantine Emperor remains hostile to Arianism
             (Christ as son of God, but not God himself)
      523 Imperial law excludes pagans, Jews & heretics (Arians)
             from public office: insult to Theodoric (d. 526)

EMPEROR JUSTINIAN (527-565) : determined to
     reunite eastern and western parts of Empire
    Wars against Persia, Vandals, Goths

The Reconquest of Italy 
    attacks Vandal Kingdom in Africa to regain Mediterranean;
    decisive victory, population rises against Vandals
    then disastrous, 20 year long Italian campaign: 535-554
    Gothic resistance led by Totila the Ostrogoth (not Attila the Hun)

Justinian's wars as beginning of "Dark Ages" in Italy,
   Imperial reunification short lived,
   Italy invaded again by Lombard in 568

Building projects under Justinian:
   Constantinople: Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom)
                                    largest church in Christendom
   Ravenna: outpost of Eastern Byzantine Empire in Italy
            mosaics of Justinian and Theodora

Codification of Roman Law: most important legacy of early Eastern Empire
   529 JUSTINIAN'S CODE (CORPUS IURIS CIVILIS) in 2 vols;
      result is influence of Roman law on barbarian legal
      codes & canon (church) law in medieval western Europe

LOMBARD KINGDOM in Italy 568-774:
     military victory due to exhaustion
           of Roman Italy, plague, famine, following Justinian’s wars

Why does Dante put Justinian in heaven?  (see Paradiso      )